Sestets is the nineteenth book from one of the country’s most acclaimed poets, a masterpiece of formal rigor and a profound meditatio...
read full description
reviews
Aug 05, 2010
Therese
rated it: 
These 6-line poems are exquisite in phrasing and imagery, almost too beautiful to talk about. Each of these 69 sestets (notice the repetition and upside-down repetition of "6") is a marvel of poise: sound and silence; text and white space; the pain of longing and the peace of acceptance; the here and the not-here. And they are poised also between the sestet and the missing companion of the sonnet's sestet, the octave. That is, many of the 6 poetic lines are stepped-down into 8 or 9 typ
More...
Oct 13, 2010
James
rated it:
This little book was my introduction to Charles Wright. I'll almost certainly be reading more of his work. I understand his poetry can sometimes be journal-like with multiple themes. The compact gems of Sestets aren't at all like that. These 6-line poems have a Zen feel to them, but their modest look on the page is deceptive. The page's emptiness seems to emphasize vacancies while at the same time the words insist there's a balance between what is and what isn't so that a change here affect
More...
5 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jun 14, 2009
Jeffrey
rated it: 
published in The Brooklyn Rail:
Charles Wright, Sestets
(Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009)
These are poems of dusk, not aubades or paeans to the noonday sun. They are adieus feeling their way past the “blank page of sundown sky.” At 70, Charles Wright is among our most august poets. His poetry comes “as close as we can come / To divinity, the language that circles the earth / and which we can never speak.”
Descriptions of his beloved Southland set the stage for sa More...
Charles Wright, Sestets
(Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009)
These are poems of dusk, not aubades or paeans to the noonday sun. They are adieus feeling their way past the “blank page of sundown sky.” At 70, Charles Wright is among our most august poets. His poetry comes “as close as we can come / To divinity, the language that circles the earth / and which we can never speak.”
Descriptions of his beloved Southland set the stage for sa More...
Sep 21, 2009
Katie
rated it:
Future Tense
"All things in the end are bittersweet—
An empty gaze, a little way-station just beyond silence.
If you can’t delight in the everyday,
you have no future here.
And if you can, no future either.
And time, black dog, will sniff you out,
and lick your lean cheeks,
And lie down beside you—warm, real clo
"All things in the end are bittersweet—
An empty gaze, a little way-station just beyond silence.
If you can’t delight in the everyday,
you have no future here.
And if you can, no future either.
And time, black dog, will sniff you out,
and lick your lean cheeks,
And lie down beside you—warm, real clo
Jan 01, 2012
Douglas
rated it: 
Wright is a professor at UVA. His poems are short and there is one on each page. Like many other poets he writes about nature in many poems. He also uses many Biblical and classical literature references.
Aug 04, 2010
James K.A.
rated it:
Another marvelous collection of poems from Charles Wright. Read my review article, "Show Me the World," at Comment magazine.
Jul 09, 2009
Timothy
rated it:
Bought and read this today. The labor behind these poems is clearly expressed, and Wright's explanations for the universe are beautiful and accurate as always.
Dec 19, 2011
Tom
rated it:
The old coot's still got it. First two-thirds of SESTETS seems stronger than the finish, as if Wright slips out of consciousness with nightfall on the mountainside.
Feb 22, 2012
Jan 02, 2012
Dec 21, 2011
Jul 24, 2011
Jun 10, 2011
Aug 01, 2011
May 05, 2011
Mar 18, 2011
Jan 06, 2011
Jan 02, 2011
Dec 09, 2010
Dec 08, 2010
Oct 27, 2010
